The objective of Project 4 is to detect, characterize, and localize to chromosomal regions the effects of genes influencing normal quantitative variation in 16 biomarkers which regulate the physiological mechanisms that are related to the processes of oxidation and inflammation or mediate their consequent damage to the human vasculature. Sixteen measures of oxidative stress and inflammation will be assayed and quantified in samples obtained from 950 members of the San Antonio Family Heart Study (SAFHS) extended pedigrees during the first four and a half years of the proposed grant period (SAFHS3). Measures of oxidative stress include: plasma oxidized LDL, F2-isoprostane concentrations, advanced glycation end product, total antioxidant status, plasma concentrations of extra-cellular superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase, and erythrocyte glutathione concentrations, and glutathione concentrations, and gluthathione reductase activities. Inflammation-related phenotypes include white blood cell number, C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-a, interleukin-6, thromboxane A2, and three leukocyte-related adhesion molecules: vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and P-section. Initial statistical genetic analyses will include more intensive study of previously collected data on a limited number of phenotypes in subsets of the earlier SAFHS1 and SAFHS2 data sets. The purpose of these analyses will be to further explore previously detected genotype-by-sex and genotype-by-smoking effects on total antioxidant status and to determine if these effects extend to other oxidative stress and inflammation phenotypes. Further, using the data obtained for the proposed SAFHS3 sample, pleiotropic (i.e., shared) genetic effects will be sought on variation in multiple oxidative stress and inflammation phenotypes as well as between these phenotypes and other indicators of cardiovascular risk under study in Project 1. Additionally, multipoint whole genome screens will be conducted to localize quantitative trait loci influencing normal quantitative variation in individual and multiple correlated oxidative stress and inflammation phenotypes.